This week we Lectio the Liturgy with the Collect for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time.
O God, who have prepared for those who love you good things which no eye can see, fill our hearts, we pray, with the warmth of your love, so that, loving you in all things and above all things, we may attain your promises, which surpass every human desire. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever.
In the prayer, we find the word love three times. It is interesting that in the Latin form of the prayer, the word has different meanings.
The first love, which is found in the phrase prepared for those who love God, is diligentibus. The root meaning of this word means “to love” or “to value highly.” This love involves not just effort, but also a degree of affection or appreciation. This is a mature love.
The second love, the warmth of your love, is found in the Latin prayer as amoris. Amor love is often a desire to love someone similar to ourselves. This love flows from our nature. When we add warmth to this love, it is an affectionate love that responds to qualities and actions.
Note, though, that this is the love we are asking of God. We desire His amoris, which makes us similar to Him.
In return, we are loving you in all things and above all things. This love is diligentes, the same as our first love. It is a love that is effort plus affection. This love prepares us to receives God’s good gifts.
It through the exchange, when we receive the warmth of His love and in return we love God in all things and above all things, we can know the depth of the love from which God desires to give us the good things that He has prepared for those who love Him.
It is a gift to be invited to a wedding to celebrate love. At the wedding, the couples who have been married for decades have a first-hand look at how love changes and gets stronger. This is a mature love. This is a love that can freely give and receive. This is a love that doesn’t just endure the storm, it is weathers the storm.
As I prayed about this love, I had a sense that God was comparing it to marriage and through that example, it is also the love between us and Christ and His Church.
New Christians glow with their newfound love in Jesus. As our faith grows and ages, it may be less obvious, but it’s still there, it’s just aged. We, too, weather the storm with Jesus, which brings us a deeper maturity in love.
We often think of the Christian life as what we give and surrender to God, but we need to look at the other side. What does God want to give to us? Our prayer tells us that He has good things, things we no eye can see. He has promises for us which surpass every human desire. What do we need to make them ours? All we need is love.